Category Archives: Other

As I noted in an earlier post, both of my grandparents’ homes were heated using wood stoves. While the homes were very livable, the use of a single wood stove did leave some rooms colder than others. In my maternal grandmother’s home, the living room and one bedroom were warmed well by the wood stove. The kitchen was usually warm from the cooking that occurred there, with a wood stove in my early childhood and an electric range later. This […]

When I was a child, the world was different – not necessarily better, but definitely different. We were taught there were winners and losers (and opportunities for losers to try again to become winners); there were doers and idlers (and doers were what made things better); and if you did wrong, there was a price to pay. Some would say that there was a level of discipline then that is missing today and to a large degree, I agree with […]

While many people dislike the smell of smoke from a wood fire and open burning is prohibited in many places, I find both the aroma of a good fire and the atmosphere it creates to be enjoyable. It doesn’t matter if it is in a wood stove, in a fireplace, or in a campfire outdoors. This probably relates to my early memories of wood burning at both of my grandparents’ homes. Both heated with wood stoves as long as they […]

Earlier this year my wife and I visited Art Hill in Forest Park to watch people using their sleds, snow disks, snow boards, and other things (even just sheets of plastic) to slide down the hill below the Art Museum. Surprisingly, with the number of people trying to use a relatively compact area, there didn’t seem to be any arguments, disagreements, or serious collisions. The hill was used by people of all ages and sizes and all seemed to […]

Model D Model 730 All through my childhood and through my college years my father worked as a mechanic at our local John Deere dealer. In those days it was common for children to visit their parents at work and while we didn’t have all of today’s safety rules, I don’t remember anyone ever being seriously injured during these visits. Some of my earliest memories are of the used John Deere Model D tractors parked outside the dealership waiting for […]

During our recent vacation we stayed at Fourth Cliff Recreation Area. It is a military recreation area with cabins and a limited number of RV sites managed by Hanscom Air Force Base and is located near Scituate, about midway between Boston and Cape Cod. These are some images of the Recreation Area. We look forward to visiting again sometime in the future.

After visiting Salem we made a quick trip to Gloucester then spent the last part of our trip visiting the sites in Boston. It was sunset when we arrived in Gloucester so I only got a few photos but it looks worth a longer visit in the future. A memorial to lost fishermen located on the Gloucester waterfront. The names of those lost are inscribed on plaques surrounding the statue on the seawall. Some may notice a similarity between this […]

As the Halloween season approached, the perfect place to visit was Salem – home of the witch trials. While we didn’t see any witches, warlocks, or goblins there were plenty of seasonal decorations along with the beauty of another New England town. Just a few photos from Salem here: An eagle outside the entrance to the Hawthorne Hotel Cupola on the old Custom House Another eagle, this one on the Custom House An overall view of the Custom House A […]

These are photos from a day trip to Cape Cod. It was a fairly short drive to the Cape (less than an hour) from our campground. Plymouth was on the way but unfortunately we didn’t have time for a visit. Most of these are from Provincetown unless otherwise noted. A typical home on the Cape Dunes and a salt marsh near Provincetown Getting ready to take flight A small launch Boats moored off the piers in Provincetown Fish sculpture Whale […]